Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Almond Cake, No. 2
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the egg whites and milk, mixing well.
Sift the flour and baking powder together, then add to the mixture alternately with the milk.
Pour the batter into prepared cake pans.
Bake and finish
Bake in layers until golden brown.
For the filling, make a boiled icing and mix in chopped blanched almonds.
Use the remaining icing to frost the top and sides of the cake.
Decorate the top with split almond halves.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air and add richness and tender texture.
- Sugar
- Creams with butter for a light structure and adds sweetness and browning.
- Egg whites
- Provide structure and help set the crumb as the cake bakes.
- Milk
- Adds moisture and tenderness to the batter.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake crumb.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during baking so the cake rises and becomes light.
The step that matters
Adding the flour and milk alternately. Alternating dry and liquid additions keeps the batter smooth and emulsified. Adding all the flour at once can overmix the gluten and make the cake tough.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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